


Kill/Joy

by RedEris



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:26:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21980893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedEris/pseuds/RedEris
Summary: Where do you find your joy, Aloy?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	Kill/Joy

**Author's Note:**

> A tribute to one of my favorite ever video game fights

Killjoy, Erend had called her. Well, yes, if your joy was in getting drunk to avoid reality--again. Not that Aloy thought Erend was getting any joy of that either.

She closed one eye, focus narrowed to a tiny point, a single connection, a bit of steel, weaker than its neighbors. Even machine minds created flaws. And she found them. She released, and the arrow flew true.

Nor was Nil’s fierce bloody-toothed joy for her. She was hardly the arbiter of what constituted normal, but she was fairly sure that man wasn’t it. Oh, she understood better than she probably ought to. The hot rush when the spear sank into flesh, when you knew that they were dead and you were not.

A shot to the front left power relay, and the Ravager was down, sparking out its artificial life. The second machine was still prowling, failing to find the little flyspeck of human life that would end it. She wanted this one’s launcher, too. Quietly, calmly, she drew another arrow. Quietly, calmly, she nocked it.

So yes, though she’d never tell Nil, she felt it too. But it was a little thing, the death of a little bandit. Soft. But the real challenge, oh…

The second Ravager was down, lying still, sparks sending quick curls of flame through the dry grass, rushing forward like water and then fading to char. She heaved up the first of the launchers, throwing her hip under it, and began trudging with her right shoulder to the lowering sun. Just close enough, but not too close. This rise should be about right. The Rockbreakers were too deep for her Focus to spot, but the destruction they wrought made a clear line on the ground.

What of Petra? Did she take joy in the work of her hands? A worthy thing. But the work of Aloy’s hands was destruction and the tools of destruction. It was not joy to her, only work.

Ready. Everything was ready. It was enough, or it was her end. She calculated her range, bared her teeth, and let the impact grenade fly, high and true. There was the small concussion of its landing, a pause, and then a deep echo. 

The ground shook. Adrenaline rushed in Aloy’s ears.

The first Rockbreaker broke the surface perhaps thirty feet away and to her left. She kept her footing, barely, and brought the disc launcher to bear. The Rockbreaker’s roar drowned out all of existence, sending shards of stone raining past her.

She shifted her grip, braced her back leg, closed the contact.

Unleashed machine death, thudding like a second pulse.

The first Rockbreaker was down before the first launcher clicked its last. The whole thing was over, both vast machines down, in a matter of seconds. The launcher wound down in a series of clicks.

And then there was nothing but ringing emptiness and high, wild laughter, echoing across the badlands with no one to hear.

Let them keep their soft, little joys. Aloy had this.


End file.
